The Hundred of Dewisland (often written "Dewsland") was a hundred in the north west of Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire

Pembrokeshire is a county in the south west of Wales. It borders Carmarthenshire to the east and Ceredigion to the north east. The county town is Haverfordwest where Pembrokeshire County Council is headquartered....

, Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

. It was formed by the Act of Union

Laws in Wales Acts 1535-1542

The Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542 were parliamentary measures by which the legal system of Wales was annexed to England and the norms of English administration introduced. The intention was to create a single state and a single legal jurisdiction; frequently referred to as England and Wales...

 of 1536 and was essentially identical to the pre-Norman cantref of Pebidiog: one of the seven cantrefs of Dyfed

Kingdom of Dyfed

The Kingdom of Dyfed is one of several Welsh petty kingdoms that emerged in 5th-century post-Roman Britain in south-west Wales, based on the former Irish tribal lands of the Déisi from c 350 until it was subsumed into Deheubarth in 920. In Latin, the country of the Déisi was Demetae, eventually to...

.

Named after Dewi Sant, the Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 name for Saint David

Saint David

Saint David was a Welsh Bishop during the 6th century; he was later regarded as a saint and as the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and a relatively large amount of information is known about his life. However, his birth date is still uncertain, as suggestions range from 462 to...

, Dewisland is in north-western Pembrokeshire, including the city of St David's

St David's

St Davids , is a city and community in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Lying on the River Alun on St David's Peninsula, it is Britain's smallest city in terms of both size and population, the final resting place of Saint David, the country's patron saint, and the de facto ecclesiastical capital of...

 and the peninsula

Peninsula

A peninsula is a piece of land that is bordered by water on three sides but connected to mainland. In many Germanic and Celtic languages and also in Baltic, Slavic and Hungarian, peninsulas are called "half-islands"....

 on which it stands. Almost all of the hundred was within the Marcher

Welsh Marches

The Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...

 Lordship of the Bishop of St David's

Bishop of St David's

The Bishop of St David's is the ordinary of the Church in Wales Diocese of St David's.The succession of bishops stretches back to Saint David who in the 6th century established his seat in what is today the city of St David's in Pembrokeshire, founding St David's Cathedral. The current Bishop of St...

, and St David's was its civil and ecclesiastical headquarters. It was said to be divided into two commotes: Mynyw (Latin: Menevia) and Pencaer.

Dewisland boasts of being the only part of Wales never conquered by a foreign invader. The English before the Conquest

Norman conquest of England

The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...

 did not get so far, and the Normans respected Dewisland as a possession of the Church, so that it was spared the fierce fighting which took place everywhere else when they conquered Wales. Nevertheless, it was occupied by the Normans in the 12th century, and made part of the March, but remained exclusively Welsh

Welsh language

Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

-speaking, except for small English plantations in the City of St David's and at Abercastle

Abercastle

Abercastle is a village in the Welsh language speaking area of Pembrokeshire, south-west Wales. Abercastle has a working harbour which is managed by Abercastle Boat Owners Association...

 and Letterston

Letterston

Letterston is a small village and local government community located in the north of the county of Pembrokeshire between Haverfordwest south and Fishguard north on the A40 road. The village's name is derived from the Flemish settler known as Letard Litelking....

. These were extinct by the time of George Owen, who described the hundred as wholly Welsh-speaking.

The Petty Sessions for the hundred were held at Solfach.